Florentine Hilty is enthusiastic: "Our cellulose gel is a very cool material." What particularly fascinates the chemist: The milky-white gel has thixotropic properties: shaken or stirred it becomes liquid, in a resting state it solidifies again. "This makes it suitable as a natural additive for all kinds of cosmetics," says Hilty. The scientist heads the research and development department at Weidmann Fiber Technology, the youngest of the three business divisions of the Weidmann Group.
The conglomerate, founded in 1877, is unmistakable in Rapperswil. Around 500 employees work at the headquarters near the train station.
Silent global market leader
Outside of the Rose City, however, the company is hardly known. Yet it is the world's leading manufacturer of insulation systems for high-performance transformers, as used in power plants, industrial facilities, or data centers. The majority of Weidmann's 3,700 employees worldwide produce pre-products or components for transformer manufacturers under the name Weidmann Electrical Technology.
The insulation components are made from compressed cellulose, from so-called pressboard. Already at the end of the 1920s, Weidmann experimented with insulating plastics. This would become the injection molding business and eventually the Weidmann Medical Technology division. It produces pipettes and other high-precision manufactured medical consumables for the world market.
"In this respect," explains Weidmann CEO Maximilian Veit, "the Weidmann Fiber Technology department is already the second spin-off from the core business."
Research partnership with Empa
The impetus came from a cooperation with Empa. The contact person in Dübendorf was the current director of the research institute, Tanja Zimmermann, at the time head of the cellulose and wood materials laboratory.
Cellulose fibers are always pre-ground for use. Pure routine. But once, the researchers sent the material through the mills a second and third time out of sheer curiosity. What happened then is described by Florentine Hilty: "In the fibrils of the dissolved cellulose fibers, micro- and nanoscale networks form, which still have enough free H-bridges to bind water." The result is a gel of microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) with a water content of 97 percent.
In 2016, Weidmann and Empa launched the first R&D project on MFC. In 2019, the project received an organizational base called Weidmann Fiber Technology. And in 2023, Florentine Hilty joined the now seven-member team as the new research director.
Target market cosmetics industry
The application possibilities of the innovative gel are broad: market research indicates potential applications in energy and coating technology, among others. "Our focus, however, is on the production of cosmetics," explains research director Hilty, "There we want to become a key supplier."
It is about chemical additives that ensure a desired flow and deformation behavior of ointments and creams. The experts speak of rheological effects such as thixotropy, which temporarily liquefies a material under force.
The mass fraction of these auxiliaries is between five and ten percent. As of today, they are almost exclusively derived from the petroleum derivative propylene. In the beauty, makeup, and skincare product market segment alone, global consumption amounts to around half a million tons per year.
"With our gel, we offer the industry a fossil-free alternative," says Florentine Hilty. An alternative that is price competitive and also brings functional advantages. Tests with sunscreens show that MFC distributes the protective particles better than conventional additives, thereby increasing the protection factor.
Weidmann positions itself as a development partner for an industry under pressure: on the one hand, through increasingly strict regulation of additives, and on the other, through the shift in consumer awareness.
Commercialization is starting
So far, the corporation has invested a double-digit million amount into its fiber technology. Currently, dozens of pilot projects are running along the value chain; from cosmetic development to contract manufacturing to marketing.
Maximilian Veit points to a series of meter-high cellulose mills. Insulators for export used to be manufactured in these halls. Today, production takes place abroad - directly at the customers'. "That's why," says Veit, "we have space here for new value-adding activities."
The mills are still running in test operation. The batches (i.e., individual production lots) are continuously analyzed in a specially built test laboratory. But Weidmann is ready to deliver. "As soon as the pilot projects result in large-scale production, we will ramp up the facilities," says the CEO.
The main competitors in the MFC market are Scandinavian paper manufacturers. They benefit from direct support from the host state or the EU for R&D projects serving sustainability.
Universities as a location advantage
Not so the Weidmann Group. This disadvantage must be compensated - in particular through intensive collaboration with academic institutions like the Bern University of Applied Sciences BFH, Department of Architecture, Wood, and Construction in Biel. There, the cellulose gel from Rapperswil regularly becomes the subject of bachelor's and master's theses. Students explore its potential in adhesives or wall coverings.
Or through projects with the Federal Office for the Environment BAFU. Weidmann scientists, for example, investigated what would be needed to obtain the raw material cellulose from domestic beech in the future. "This would significantly improve the ecological balance of our gels," says Florentine Hilty.
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